


Meet on a Fatal Shore

by marien8



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Rating May Change, Warnings May Change, i sure dont, will someone die? who knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:16:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28675818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marien8/pseuds/marien8
Summary: Daud can't leave a good mystery well enough alone: when his recurring nightmares send him back to Dunwall, Delilah's return is the last thing he expected.  That was his first mistake, really.The second mistake was staying to save Corvo.
Relationships: Corvo Attano/Daud, a verrry slow burn, call that a simmer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Meet on a Fatal Shore

Daud dropped down on the deck as silently as he could. It wasn’t much: He’d left his own ship just this morning, following the empress on unsteady legs, used to the sway of a boat after a fortnight of travel. 

Still, she couldn’t have heard him over the waves smacking against the hull. Daud didn’t know if he _wanted_ her to hear, to realize he was near, even with the arm that held her connection to the void gone. that was a hurt all on its own, to realize that life hadn’t been as kind to her as he’d wanted it to be, as he’d _hoped_ it to be, as he’d read her one and only letter.

His own connection was weak, too. Stiff like an unused muscle: he hadn’t used the bond for nearly 15 years. He had done it nearly daily, before, where Billie was concerned. 

He could try again. Feel the bond stretch between them like a tangible thing. It had been long, but she was so close, and the mark burned brighter than it had in a decade, as bright as it was when it woke him, the Void calling him through his nightmares. 

He let his hand clench on empty air instead, and said: “Billie.”

she didn’t whirl around, startled. He hadn’t expected her to. Her left shoulder twitched and she clutched the stump to keep it from moving.

“Daud.” It wasn’t a question. She turned around, wary and unsure. She didn’t carry a sword anymore. Daud was sure she had at least one pistol somewhere on her. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been Billie.

“Outsider’s ass,” _that_ was unexpected: she’d always been in awe at the Outsider, a little apprehensive in her heresy. “you’re _old_.”

He didn’t laugh, but there was a smile as he stepped out of the shadows. He wanted to close the distance between them completely and hug her, back to the Billie Lurk he knew, but he was sure the gesture wouldn’t be welcomed. 

“Don’t remind me.” He said, for a lack of anything else to say. And then, because it had to be asked: “The Dreadful Wale, really?”

She forced a smile, a sardonic little thing. The scarred side of her face didn’t really react to the movement. It bothered her a lot more than she let on. “What do you want me to say? That I wanted you to see, hope we’d stumble on each other down south? Or that it’s just a memento to remind myself of what I left behind?”

She turned away from him, pulled her coat even tighter around her. “You can pick and choose, Daud. I don’t know myself.”

“It’s okay, Billie.” 

She glared at him. It wasn’t alright, not for her. He grimaced. She’d been right: Daud was old. He wanted to move past it all the moment she’d opened her mouth, get back the one good thing Dunwall had deigned to give him. He knew he was to blame, but that was not how Billie saw it. 

“If you’re here for Delilah,” she said, back to business, as if they were 15 years back and standing in Delilah’s studio in Timsh’s mansion, “it won’t work. The royal protector stuck a sword through her gut-”

“And it didn’t stick, I know.”

She gave him a questioning and frankly unimpressed look. “How long have you been around?”

He explained, quickly, how he’d seen Emily flee the palace and how he’d followed her through the Tower District. How she’d evaded the guards and scaled walls, with only the sword hanging from her hip. She hadn’t used it. How he’d hid himself on the captain’s deck while Emily explained what happened. 

“Well,” Billie said, not so much surprised that Emily had done well, but more impressed that she’d managed to impress Daud, “we have to hope it’ll be enough once we reach Karnaca.”

“We?” Daud repeated, but he knew the answer already. Billie snorted, simply pragmatic. 

“You’re not coming with. Emily would kill you.” She was probably right. “And she doesn’t need you. Dunwall does.”

She looked out over the railing, and Daud followed along, staring at the Dunwall skyline. The water was beating restlessly against the walls of the waterlock. Daud could imagine, in the late light of the setting sun, that the water was red. They stood there for a moment, side by side, bathed red as well, watching Dunwall’s fatal shore. 

He wanted to say thank you, and Billie wanted to say farewell, one last time. He jumped into the water before either of them had the chance, and swam to shore. 

“Daud.” The Outsider says when Daud finally fell into an uneasy sleep inside an abandoned apartment close to Kaldwin Bridge. The void was a welcome reprieve from the nightmares Daud suffered in Tyvia, but Daud still scowled as The Outsider smiled at him. 

“Have you missed this?” The Outsider asked, indicating the void around them in a sweeping gesture: they were on the fractured streets of the Tower District. Far in the distance, Daud could see an upside down railcar, sailing along into nothing. 

He didn’t know if the bastard meant the void or Dunwall itself. Probably both. “Did you?” It’s a weak deflection, but the Outsider let it pass, his smile growing a little sharper. 

“I have. The Knife of Dunwall, back in the city that broke him, and that he broke in return. Back for another mystery.” 

Daud snorted. “Hardly a mystery this time around.”

“Is it?” The Outsider said, and while Daud waited for the usual spiel, the Outsider disappeared. There’s a clear path to follow from roof to roof towards the side of Dunwall Tower, where Daud saw what had stopped him dead in his tracks that morning: Emily escaping from the tower. 

Daud transversed up and on, past dying City Watch members, a panicked officer banging on a closed door, a metal contraption gutting a noble, another officer dead on the floor of what must be the Empress’ bedroom. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he would know when he saw it.

There was a statue of Corvo on the highest rooftop, surrounded by women who Daud recognized as Delilah’s witches. It was a statue of Attano in action: arm outstretched, reaching out to something that isn’t there. The actual Corvo was nowhere in sight. 

_‘Then she did something I can’t explain’_ Emily had said. Knowing Delilah, this statue _is_ Attano. 

“Delilah has a knack for doing the impossible.” The Outsider materialized in front of the statue, his back to Daud. “She clawed her way out of the Void, tore herself -and the Void itself- apart to do so.”

The Outsider reached out to Corvo’s outstretched hands. Corvo apparently had finally seen the use in hiding his mark, but half of the wrapping had fallen away during the struggle with Delilah, leaving enough bare skin for Daud to see that it was _completely_ bare. The mark was gone. 

“Delilah’s a part of the Void now.” The Outsider said as Daud’s blood turned to ice. “A part of me. And I don’t like it _._ ” The idea that Delilah could take away something so fundamental to Daud’s self burned through him. She’d done it to Corvo already, even to the Outsider himself. 

“You once asked him to spare you, to leave in return for your life.” The Outsider continued, “This time, you can return the favor. Save him.”

Everything for Corvo Attano, Daud thought. No favorites, right. Knowing the Outsider, the Empress herself would carouse through the streets of Karnaca with a heretic’s mark on her hand the moment she set foot on land. “I promised to leave forever. Rescuing his life might cost me mine.” 

It was a lackluster complaint. The Outsider saw it for what it was: an empty threat. 

“Oh Daud,” The Outsider answered, turning around within the arms of the statue, “doesn’t your life always hang in the balance? You’ve made your peace with dying once already.” 


End file.
